33 | Mediation Part Three

Sunday, March 4, 2018

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Insanity:

The fact that there is even a chapter entitled 'Mediation Part THREE.'

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            We need to have a roommate mediation after church.

            I looked down at my phone during church and turned to look at Ashley, my eyebrows raised as I read her message. She shrugged.

            "I'm done with them acting like they run our apartment and then not even following any of the rules they made themselves." She whispered as a kid our age spoke at the front of the room as if they knew what they were talking about, "We're going to have a discussion, like adults, without Rebecca and without Stephanie. Just everyone sitting down and talking to each other openly."

            "Good luck with that." I shook my head, "I'm all for it, but I feel like Madison's just going to start crying to get out of actually talking about anything serious."

            Ashley nodded.

            "She probably will, but I mean...it's worth a shot. It's better than her coming into whatever room we're in and slamming every door in sight."

            "You're right," I agreed, "I'll try not to laugh when she starts crying."

            "You and me both."

            A reply came through to both of our phones and we looked down to read Samantha's message.

            Not to be rude, but I feel like the tension in the apartment has primarily excluded Bella and I. Do we need to be at this roommate mediation?

            I looked over at Ashley, who shrugged. Samantha was right; ever since Bella had moved in to replace Christina, Samantha had been attached to her hip and out of the roommate drama. (1)

            Nah, you're good.

            I typed out the reply and sent it after getting Ashley's approval. It wasn't necessary to include third parties in this. (2)

            "Are you gonna bring up her calling you a whore?" Ashley whispered curiously.

            I cocked my head to the side. I was considering it, but I also knew she would deny meaning it in a malicious way, and Paige would come to her defense immediately. It almost wasn't worth the effort.

            "I don't know. Maybe." I shook my head, sighing and folding my arms. "But I am going to mention Stephanie's email. 'I have had a few concerns raised to me by some of your roommates'? You know she meant Madison and Paige, but I don't know what 'concerns' they would have raised about me specifically."

            "It's worth a shot to ask them." Ashley nodded her agreement. "And even if they don't tell you what they said, their faces will give away if they said anything at all."

***

            "So why are we here?" Madison asked as the four of us sat down in the living room after church. "And why don't Samantha or Bella have to deal with this?"

            "Because the four of us are having issues with each other and it's not a pleasant way to live." Ashley replied firmly, "We still have a month and a half left of the semester, and we need to be able to get along in our own apartment."

            Paige and Madison looked at each other before nodding reluctantly.

            "I guess that makes sense." Paige said quietly.

            We all sat in silence for a second, unsure of who was going to speak first. I wasn't even completely sure about what I wanted to bring up at all, so I didn't think that speaking first would result in anything more than me going "Uh..." for an extended period of time.

            "I guess I'll start." Ashley said, sighing slightly. "I feel like there were apartment 'rules' made at the beginning of the semester, and most of them were made by you two. That's totally fine, don't get me wrong...but then you guys didn't follow like any of them, but still expected us to."

            "Like what?" Paige asked, "Because I feel like there are a lot of things you guys aren't doing either."

            "Like the 10:00 quiet rule." Ashley replied slowly, "You guys will come home at midnight screaming about something that just happened. That would be totally fine if you didn't give me the cold shoulder for playing music at 10:30 in the shower."

            Paige and Madison were silent for a moment before Paige spoke.

            "Well, this is what I'm talking about."

            Ashley and I exchanged glances.

            "What?"

            "I feel like I constantly have to walk on eggshells around you two. You get so butthurt over everything that happens in this apartment, and I just don't appreciate you two ruling the way the rest of us live." (3)

            I felt my eyes bugging out of my head and spoke for the first time in the conversation.

            "Do you want to provide some examples of that?"

            Paige shrugged.

            "I can't think of any specific examples right now. But that doesn't mean it doesn't happen."

            "Gotcha." I nodded.

            "Like, having to ask to have people over." Madison piped up, "It's like we have to obey you two when we want to hang out with friends."

            "We all agreed to text each other about having people over to the apartment because some people were kinda hoarding the living room." I replied, "And you're not 'obeying' us, you're being considerate of the other five people that live in this apartment beside yourself."

            "It's still stupid." Madison shook her head and Paige nodded her agreement, "It's not being considerate, it's making us prisoners in our own apartment." (4)

            "It's most definitely not doing that." Ashley shook her head, "Everyone in this apartment can have people over, but there was a problem with one person having people over all of the time and getting mad when someone else would come home with a boy or something. Double-checking that the apartment is free just helps everyone be able to plan their evenings better, especially since there are six of us living here, all with different friends and different schedules."

            Madison and Paige were quiet, looking at each other quickly before turning back to us.

            "Whatever."

            "Eloquent." I rolled my eyes, (5) "I'll start on my own grievances: I don't appreciate being called a whore."

            I felt Ashley smile slightly from beside me—she had been trying to convince me to bring that up. If they were going all in, then so was I.

            "I'm sorry, what?" Paige asked.

            "Not you." I said, "Madison. You called me a whore and I think that was so far over the line that you're lucky I'm willing to speak to you at all."

            "I have never said that word in my life." Madison shook her head vehemently, "I did not call you that."

            "Oh no? Can you tell me the difference between a homewrecker and a whore?"

            Madison was silent.

            "Exactly. When you were so shocked that I wasn't going to break up Neil and his girlfriend over a stupid little crush I had, you were calling me a whore. You do remember that, don't you?"

            Madison rolled her eyes.

            "So what? You didn't have to take it so personally."

            I raised my eyebrows.

            "Alright, sure. Next time I call you a whore let's see how you take it."

            Madison's eyes got wide and started to water as the inevitable tears appeared.

            "I just don't understand you, Morgan. You can be so rude to other people and then can't take the heat back."

            I couldn't help but laugh.

            "I don't slut shame other girls, I don't call people whores. I don't do anything I would find myself being annoyed by if it were done to me, because that's not how I live my life. I'm straightforward because I hate passive aggressiveness, and if that's not your style, that's fine. But the tears and the pity party aren't going to work with making me think that you're actually sorry for saying terrible things to me."

            The room was silent again as everyone looked at each other uncomfortably, unsure of what to say next.

            "Well, the point of this was to get everything out in the open." Ashley said as Madison continued to cry quietly, "Does everyone feel like they...got everything out?"

            Paige and I nodded while Madison sniffled loudly.

            "Madison?" Ashley prodded.

            "Um...yeah. Everything's out." (6)

            "Alright, then. I think we can go and enjoy the rest of our Sunday." Ashley nodded, although I knew we both were thinking the same thing: everything was definitely not on the table on Madison's end.

            "Actually, I have a question." I said as Paige began to stand up, "I got an email from Stephanie about meeting with her like the rest of you guys did, but she said that she had 'received some complaints from some of my roommates.' I assumed that was you guys, which is totally fine—I was just wondering if that was about what we talked about today, or something else that was bothering you both."         

            Paige and Madison looked at each other worriedly, which at the very least gave away the fact that it had been the two of them who had complained.

            "Stephanie told us to keep everything in that meeting confidential." Paige replied slowly, "Sorry."

            "She didn't say that to me when I met with her." Ashley raised her eyebrows and leaned forward slightly, "Why would she tell you something different?"

            Paige shrugged as Madison looked down at her shoes.

            "I just...I don't want to talk about it."

            She got up off of the couch and Madison followed suit, both of them walking out of the living room and into the other side of the apartment.

            "Well that gives me a lot of hope for Thursday." I muttered to Ashley, "Why couldn't we have had normal roommates?"

            "I don't know," She rolled her eyes, "But hey, I wouldn't worry about Thursday too much. What were they going to complain about? You getting upset over being called a homewrecker?"

            "You're right," I nodded, "It'll be fine." (7)

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Theory:

No matter how hard you try to be okay with simply not getting along with someone, they will consistently try to belittle you while simultaneously claiming they want to be friends.

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(1) I don't think I've really even mentioned Samantha's name in quite a few chapters.

(2) Plus, Madison didn't need a bigger audience for the pity party she was about to throw for herself.

(3) At this point I think my head wasn't completely in the sphere of the argument, because if it was I would have said some pretty offensive stuff. Instead, I tried my hardest to be kind...or at the very least, civil.

(4) This was brought up about three days after Madison had gotten angry with me for having a date over at 7:00 PM without asking her first, since she was planning on having a boy over at 7:30 PM without bothering to tell anyone about it.

(5) The civility was starting to crumble a bit.

(6) Lie.

(7) Translation: I don't think so lowly of my roommates that I believe they're capable of what they did.